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Friday, 14 January 2011

Olympic Digger Wake Up Call

Sorry about being so grumpy to you guys who phoned & knocked early this morning. I eventually got hold of someone on the 'hotline' and passed on my grumps.

I still haven't heard what the hell it was all about, but it must have been one of their so-called 'emergency works' to have got the diggers & tippers out. I guess the spotlights were coming off the machinery itself.

Nonetheless, it was all completely unacceptable. They are not allowed to start work at 5am, and we are entitled to sleep until 8am if we need to.

I'll send an email to Judy King, but she has been 'looking into' a few previous things for a while now, so don't hold your breath.

Again - sorry about the shortness of the conversations, I'm not too sociable at that time of morning.

Update:Someone called Rickie Butler sent this through sometime today - see if you can make out what he is saying:

Hi Sona

I understand that you contacted the Construction Hotline early this morning to report machinery making noise on the Olympic Park.

We have investigated this issue with the teams onsite. The contractor had planned to use some VCBs (the concrete vehicle control barriers) to create an exit off the main loop road within standard working hours this morning. An inspection of these barriers was carried out early this morning and it was found they were unstable and required additional work to make them safe before they could be used for this purpose.

Due to the nature of the issue it was necessary to carry out these emergency works early this morning before the roads on site opened to traffic. As such we were unfortunately unable to notify residents as we normally would. I apologise that these works caused you disturbance.

If you experience any other issues related to the Olympic Park development please contact the Construction Hotline on 08000 722 110.

24 comments:

Matt
said...

Cheers Sona, I'm sorry too, but still peeeeed-off. Is she still 'looking into' why the busses idle directly opposite Leabank? The digging & shouting kind of rolled into the first busses making THEIR noise this morning. All-in-all an very unacceptable morning call from the ODA (again!)Matt

Sóna, how dissapointing. I thought these ODA idiots had learnt from their mistakes, and moved on.All the ruckus this morning, coupled with the shenanigans with Thames Water most of this year - paving the way for housing developement to be built directly opposite my bedroom window - my blood is starting to boil again.Time to start getting mouthy again methinks.Meg

Sorry to have called you at work Shona, but it sounds like I'm as grumpy as you about being woken up just before 5 this morning.What the hell were they doing? Thay can see us across the river, and yet they behave as if we don't exist.Let me know when she gets back to you with an excuse.Jill

Thanks for the call, good luck, she hasn't been too prompt in the past, so don't hold your breath.But like we said at the meeting, our main concern now is with the legacy company, not the oda. The lc are the ones who are ultimately going to affect us much more than locog or this lot.Pity we have to put up with this bunch at the mo tho.Anna

I thought Anonymous was being ironic about 5 am, but other posts suggest not. 5 am is outside the working hours that environmental health regulations normally allow noise to be inflicted on sleeping residents (not that I guess Leabank Square has any more faith in Hackney Environmental Health than we did in Tower Hamlets Environmental Health during Docklands redevelopment).

An emergency exception needs to be justified - in construction terms "emergency" sometimes means simply that equipment is cheaper / more easily available, not that carrying out the work itself imperative. That of course is part of what Anonymous describes as "basic construction knowledge".

The "emergency" nature of the work needs to be adequately justified. Ask for a copy of the documentation that specified that the instability of the barrier posed an immediate threat.

"Ducks" used to be the name given to amphibious vehicles like the one that does the tourist route from outside the old County Hall, but I think nowadays it's just slang for a dumper truck.

Always remember - there's a pretty good chance that anyone who doesn't give you a prompt and convincing explanation, and evidence, is not telling you the full truth. And anyone trying to help minimise a problem is quite likely to have a connection with the source of the problem.

Owen, we are obviously not on the same wavelength. I was not making any reference to any emergency. The basic construction knowledge was in reference to what a duck was. It certainly isnt a dumper. A prompt and convincing explanation of what exactly? I don't recall anyone directing a sensible question at myself, it seemed like somewhat patronising conjecture and questions amongst others.

Sorry to hear about your early wake up calls as well Superlegato. 2 of my mates in Omega also say the same thing, only in more colourful language.It seems ANYTHING can be chalked up to 'emergency works' and they get away with driving us to drink.D

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